Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing supported internship funding arrangements for young people aged between 16 and 19 who require additional support to enter the workplace but do not have an education, health and care plan.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is continuing to invest in supported internships by providing up to £12 million to March 2026 to support local areas to sustain their progress and develop their supported internship offers.
This includes funding to expand the department’s pilot that is testing supported internships with young people who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) but don’t have an education, health and care plan and are furthest from the labour market, to support hundreds more young people with SEND to transition into paid employment.
This will help to build the department’s evidence base and inform our evaluation of the pilot, which will inform future policy planning on supported internships. An evaluation of our wider investment is expected to be published next summer, including some learning from the pilot, and a follow-up report with more detailed learning from the pilot is expected in summer 2027.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are considering opting into the creative thinking element of the PISA test.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The testing for the current cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 study has now come to a close. The Creative Thinking domain was not offered as an option for countries and economies to participate in for the current cycle. The department will consider taking part in the options offered for the PISA study, including the Creative Thinking domain, in future PISA study cycles.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional intervention funding for the provision of education re-engagement programmes for 16 to 18 year olds who have defaulted their initial course but who could be re-engaged.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Under Section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008, local authorities are required to make available the support it considers appropriate to encourage, enable or assist all young people aged 16 to 19 to effectively participate in education or training.
Local authorities must also collect information about young people to identify and give reengagement support to those who are not participating or are not in employment, education, or training. They are expected to meet any costs incurred in the delivery of the above from their overall budgets, including central government grants.
Funding for education and training provision for 16 to 19-year-olds and those up to the age of 25 with an education, health and care plan is provided to schools, colleges and training providers.
The funding formula for 16 to 19-year-olds includes extra funding for disadvantaged students to recognise that there are additional costs incurred in engaging, retaining and supporting young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and to account for the additional costs incurred for teaching and supporting students who have low prior attainment to achieve their learning goals.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Independent - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the removal of funding for non-specialist spelling and grammar software, on university students in receipt of the Disabled Students' Allowance.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Yeovil to the answer of 9 September 2025 to Question 71715.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing in year growth funding to schools affected by additional starts relating to provision intended to (a) prevent and (b) reduce the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department funds any 16, 17 or 18-year-old who wants a place in post-16 education.
Typically, this is through lagged funding, where the main funding is based on student numbers in the year before. However, for those institutions with a significant growth in students, we recognise that there are additional costs and provide in-year funding to help with these.
To support providers to offer places to young people across the country, we announced our plans for In Year Growth in the 2025/26 academic year on 27 August 2025. This should support providers to offer places to all young people who want one, including young people not currently in education, employment or training. Further information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/16-to-19-funding-in-year-growth-for-2025-to-2026.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures her Department has in place to run critical services in the event of a major internet outage.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In preparation for potential major incidents, the department has undertaken Business Impact Assessments across all critical assets. These assessments have informed the development of Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), which outline the procedures and contingencies necessary to maintain essential services during such incidents. These plans are regularly reviewed and tested to ensure operational resilience and continuity of service delivery.
To further strengthen response capabilities, the department’s Central Major Incident and Cyber Incident team is equipped to manage such events end-to-end. In parallel to BCPs, Disaster Recovery Strategies are in place to restore affected services swiftly, minimising downtime and ensuring operational continuity.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Independent - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she had discussions with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions prior to its decision to withdraw funding for non-specialist spelling and grammar software for university students receiving the Disabled Students' Allowance.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This change is entirely within the remit of the department. My right hon. Friends. the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions therefore did not meet to discuss this matter prior to the decision being made. The department has made the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) funding on the grounds that there are now free-to-access versions available with the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs. It is therefore not an effective use of public money to continue to fund this type of software through DSA.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help re-engage young people with education, health and care plans who are not in employment, education or training.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There are 165,000 16 to 25 year-olds with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. Of these, it is estimated that approximately 22,000 are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Published data for the reporting year 2025 shows that approximately 11% of 16 to 19 year-olds with EHC plans and 21% of 20 to 25 year-olds with EHC plans were NEET. The data is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/da86f4d8-c536-4e7d-5ab8-08ddf5e2701a.
The department is acting to tackle the number of young people who are NEET.
The recently published post-16 education and skills white paper commits us to building a system that leaves no learner behind.
We are tackling NEETs by ensuring that every young person has access to education, training or support to move into work, backed by measures such as automatic college places for 16 year-olds without a post-16 plan, subsidised paid work placements, and a guaranteed job for those on Universal Credit unemployed for over 18 months.
The Youth Guarantee trailblazers are testing focused support for vulnerable groups such as care leavers, young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and those from alternative provision. This focused support includes mentoring, confidence building, coaching and financial management skills. This testing will inform the future roll out of the Youth Guarantee.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of young people with education, health and care plans who are not in employment, education or training.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There are 165,000 16 to 25 year-olds with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. Of these, it is estimated that approximately 22,000 are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Published data for the reporting year 2025 shows that approximately 11% of 16 to 19 year-olds with EHC plans and 21% of 20 to 25 year-olds with EHC plans were NEET. The data is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/da86f4d8-c536-4e7d-5ab8-08ddf5e2701a.
The department is acting to tackle the number of young people who are NEET.
The recently published post-16 education and skills white paper commits us to building a system that leaves no learner behind.
We are tackling NEETs by ensuring that every young person has access to education, training or support to move into work, backed by measures such as automatic college places for 16 year-olds without a post-16 plan, subsidised paid work placements, and a guaranteed job for those on Universal Credit unemployed for over 18 months.
The Youth Guarantee trailblazers are testing focused support for vulnerable groups such as care leavers, young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and those from alternative provision. This focused support includes mentoring, confidence building, coaching and financial management skills. This testing will inform the future roll out of the Youth Guarantee.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential contribution of higher education institutions to reducing (a) national and (b) regional skills shortages.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Skills England analysis estimates that two thirds (66%) of the projected additional employment demand in priority occupations to 2030 will require workers with a qualification at level 4 or above. In higher education (HE), half (53%) of employed recent education leavers are working in priority occupations. Overall, HE accounts for over half (51%) of all recent education leavers entering priority occupations from the skills system in England.
The government published plans for HE reform as part of the post 16 education and skills white paper on 20 October 2025. This set out a target of two-thirds of young people participating in higher level learning academic, technical or apprenticeships by age 25, and a sub target of at least 10% of young people participating higher technical education or apprenticeships by age 25 by 2040.
The white paper sets out a number of policies to deliver this target, including reforming the strategic priorities grant to align with priority sectors and strengthened guidance on HE providers engaging with Local Skills and Improvement Partnerships.